I started with Jon Pertwee (okay, I’m officially an old phart), but have to say that David Tenant has been the best overall. He was brilliant. Theo Spark has the entire first episode of the new season on his blog, yesterday, and Smith is better than I expected. It will take a few weeks to get a good feel for his grasp of the character, though.

I only got into the series last year, so David Tennant is my Doctor. I’m a bit disappointed at how difficult (and expensive) it is to find episodes of the old series, but I’ve got all the new ones on DVD.

Agreed it’s all about who was in the role when you started watching it.
So to me it’s Ecclestein. Took me a good season or so to warm up to Tennant but I did. I suspect it will be the same with Smith. Loved the redhead in the police uniform with those stockings though!!

The older stuff I was lucky to catch on PBS sometimes when traveling when I was middle school age or so (local PBS did not have). Now I am torrenting some of the old stuff to catch up.